As in Castlevania: Bloodlines, you are able to select from two characters, Reinhardt Schneider and Carrie Fernandez, at the beginning of the game. Reinhardt is the latest descendant of the Belmont clan, and like his ancestors, his primary weapon is the whip, but he can also use the typical Castlevania items, such as the cross, dagger, and ax. Carrie Fernandez is the descendant of Sypha Belnades from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, and her weapon is, appropriately enough, a long-range magic attack. Most would agree that it's a little easier to play as Reinhart, but both characters have separate quests, so there isn't much of a decision when selecting a character other than which one you want to complete the game with first.

	I Love to Reload
	The other vampire hunter you meet early on in Castlevania 64 bears a strong resemblance to Metal Gear Solid's Revolver Ocelot.

Castlevania 64's graphics aren't horrible--bland textures, fogging, and low-quality player models were pretty much commonplace on the Nintendo 64 hardware at the time, but you couldn't help but be disappointed. One of the early levels lets you get a good look at the castle you are about to venture to, but because of the limitations of the hardware, it's just depicted as a horrible low-resolution bitmap. Once indoors, the quality of the environments improves substantially, with plenty of special effects and more complex models.